Why is the auto accident fatality rate so high for teenagers Essay

Why is the auto accident fatality rate so high for teenagers - Essay Example Analysts suggest 25 years as appropriate age for issuance of license. Certain countries are on the verge of passing law for licensing people at the age of 25. This will help in controlling ever increasing accidents in which teens are involved. However, various measures have helped in overcoming the teenage accidents. Teen age drivers are found involved in most of the traffic accidents in the world. Various factors contribute is increasing teenage car accidents. Important causes are night driving, use of alcohol, texting while driving, lack of driving skills, reckless driving, poor hazard detection and not wearing seat belts. National Highway Traffic Association released statistics in 2012 regarding teenage fatal and non-fatal accidents due to various causes (â€Å"Teenage Driver Crash Statistics†). According to statistics 16 years old cause 3.7 % more accidents than other age drivers. Crash rate for drivers between 16 to 19 years is 2.7 % more than any other age group. Accordingly citation is again 1.8% more in 16 years old drivers than other drivers. Alcohol used teenage drivers are causing 1.8% more accidents than other drivers in America. Teenagers are most dangerous when they are newly licensed. There are certain types of accidents where elders are mostly involved when compared to teenagers. Teenagers are inexperienced drivers after getting the license and this reason is major cause of accidents by them. Teenagers carrying teenager passengers are highly prone to accidents. Teenager passengers never try to correct driver on violations. Older drivers keep correcting teenage drivers while travelling in the same vehicle, which reduces the accident risk (â€Å"Teenage Driver Crash Statistics†). According to report published by pediatric, 5500 teenagers faced death due to automobile crashes in United States in year 2012. Few analysts do not agree but male teenagers’ cause 1% more accidents than females. Over speeding is a

Female Genital Mutilation in the Middle East and North Africa Essay Example for Free

Female Genital Mutilation in the Middle East and North Africa Essay Values and beliefs of a certain society can be illumined through the traditional cultural practices that often span from one generation to another. Globally, every social group has its own traditional cultural practices that are considered to be beneficial for the community. However, there are many instances that such practices may be harmful for some groups, most especially for women. Terrible traditional cultural practices are committed directly against females around the world. Despite the atrocities of such practices and its violation against human rights, many women-violent practices still exist and are prevalent in other countries. One of the most prevalent forms of harmful traditional practices is the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) (Office of the High Commisioner of Human Rights-United Nations Organization [OHCR-UNOG]). The pervasiveness of FGM is attributed to people’s inability to question the morality of such action that should be addressed to those who practice female genital mutilation. As such, despite of the interventions of many international communities, in order to achieve gender equality, women are still violated and continue to be denied of various human rights. Hence, it can be perceived that many traditional cultural practices, including female genital mutilation is carried out for the benefit of the male populace (OHCR-UNOG). Historical Background of Female Genital Mutilation Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as ‘female circumcision’ or ‘female genital cutting’, involves procedures that are centered in the partial or overall removal of the female’s external genitalia, or the infliction of injury to the genital organs of female for non-medical reasons. More often than not, the practice is performed by traditional circumcisers who are believed to play a significant role in the community where they belong. However, records have indicated that FGM is also carried out by medically trained professionals (World Health Organization [WHO]). FGM is considered to be an age-old practice existent in various communities globally because it is known to be a custom (OHCR-UNOG). However, FGM’s origin has not been well established. Certain theories indicate that female genital mutilation predates male mutilation (Davis 158 qtd. in Lightfoot-Klein). In one study, it was shown that FGM occurred in areas that are considered to be restricted to the rest of the world which includes Islamic, Semitic and Christian nations. It was contemplated that â€Å"the more ancient a custom or belief, the more universally it is found† (Lightfoot-Kline). All throughout history, reports regarding female circumcision has been existent. The very first historical reference of FGM can be traced from the literature of Herotodus, who wrote that FGM already existed during 5th century BC in Ancient Egypt. He even pointed out that the practice had its beginnings in Egypt or Ethiopia because FGM has been performed by Ethiopians, Phoenicians, and Hitties (Taba qtd. in Lightfoot-Kline). One Greek papyrus dated 163 BC found in the British museum indicated that circumcisions were performed on girls by the time they received dowries. Different authors claimed that FGM was practiced by early Romans and Arabs (Kline). Methods employed in order to repress women’s sexuality has been well recorded in history. In ancient Rome, women slaves are required to wear metal rings which were passed through the labia minora in order to prevent procreation. During the absence of their husbands, women from medieval England wore chastity belts to avoid promiscuity. Tsarist Russia, as well as France, America, and France during the 19th century already practice clitoridectomy; while evidences from mummified bodies of ancient Egypt indicate that excision and infibulation has been performed, thereby giving rise to the existence of pharaonic circumcision (OHCR-UNOG). Types of Female Genital Mutilation Various types of female genital mutilation are performed depending on the cultural history and traditions of a certain community. Basically there are three common types of FGM: (1) Type one or Sunna circumcision. â€Å"Sunna† is an Arabic term which means tradition in English. This form of FGM is done by removing the prepuce or the clitoris’ tip. (2) Type two also called as clitoridectomy or excision is widely practiced in Egypt. This procedure involves the removal of the whole clitoris including the prepuce, glans and the adjacent labia. (3) Type three which is commonly referred to as infibulation or pharaonic circumcision is the procedure commonly applied in Sudan and Somalia. Considered as the most dramatic type of FGM, infibulation, which literally means â€Å"to fasten with a clip or buckle,† involves not only the removal of the clitoris and the nearby labia, but also include the sewing of remaining parts of vulva with the use of a catgut or thread. Such form of mutilation leaves only a tiny hole in the female genital that serves as a passage for the urine and menstrual blood. Women who are infibulated are cut open during their wedding night in order to perform sexual intercourse. However, right after the act, they are sewn again in order to avoid infidelity. More often than not, the groom is responsible for opening the bride’s sewn genitalia with the use of a double-edged dagger. There are some instances that women are cut open and are sewn back together during the time of their separation with their husbands. (4) The remaining type of FGM which is categorized as type four mutilation includes procedures that inflict damage to the female genitalia. Such form of mutilation may range from piercing, pricking, and stretching of labia or clitoris; burning of the clitoris and other tissues of the genitalia through cauterization; scraping of vaginal orifice; vaginal cutting; placing corrosive substances to cause vaginal bleeding, and the introduction of herbal substances to narrow or tighten the vagina (Rosenthal). The most common type of FGM is the clitoral and labia minora excision which constitutes about 80% of all FGM case. However, infibulation is considered as the most extreme form which accounts to 15% of all the mutilation procedures (Steiner, Alston, and Goodman,). The Cultural and Religious Tie: Middle East and African Areas Located Above the Equator The principle of female genital mutilation is prevalent in the societies of African territory. The extent of such phenomena can be seen in 25 countries of Africa. Infibulation is widely performed in areas including Djibouti, Mali, Somalia, selected parts of Ethiopia, Egypt and the northern region of Sudan. Meanwhile, excision and circumcision are evident in Benin, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Chad, Guinea, Guinnea-Bissau, Kenya, Mauritania, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Uganda, Togo and other areas in the United Republic of Tanzania (OHCR-UNOG). Currently, WHO estimated that annually about three million African girls are at risk for female genital mutilation and about 92 million of the female populace, age 10 years and above have already undergone mutilation. The prevalence of FGM in the said areas is associated primarily with myths and the ignorance of people towards biological, medical, and religious perspectives. As noted by Hanny Lighfoot-Klein: â€Å"The clitoris is perceived as repulsive, filthy, foul smelling, dangerous to the life of the emerging new born, and hazardous to the health and potency of the husband† (Lightfoot-Klein, n. p. ). Majority of African countries adhere to such beliefs that it has been well embraced and became a value, causing FGM to become a customary practice over time. In Sudan, the clitoris is believe to grow to the length of the neck of a goose; long enough to dangle between the legs which could rival the male penis if left uncut. Such concept influences the perception of males, thereby reinforcing them not to marry a woman who is uncircumcised or â€Å"unclean† (Lightfoot-Klein). Among the Bambara’s in Mali, it is widely viewed that once the clitoris touches the head of a child being born, automatically the child will die. As the clitoris is considered to be the male characteristic of females, its removal is seen as an action that would result in the enhancement of femininity. In Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Somalia, females are imposed to undergo mutilation in order to control their sexuality and ensure their virginity until marriage and their chastity right after (OHCR-UNOG). Because childbearing and marriage are the only options for most of African women, majority of them are forced to submit themselves to the practice genital mutilation which they also have to pass on to their daughters (Lightfoot-Klein). The institutionalization of patriarchal system within the society also plays a significant role in the perpetration of FGM. In ancient Mesopotamia, the code of Hammurabi embarked the presence of some features of patriarchy in public veiling and sexual repression of women. It was stated in the code that fathers were entitled to treat his daughter’s virginity as a ‘family property asset. Due to this system, women were categorized as â€Å"respectable,† meaning they were chaste and conforming, and â€Å"disreputable,† which translates to low class or slaves. As a result, women who bowed to the system benefited from it by securing their own safety as well as that of their children. However, they became the steadfast advocates of the system, thereby imposing it to their daughters. Present-day Africans follow the same patriarchal outlook. Female circumcision is then performed to the daughters of the women, who, during the time they were young, experienced mutilation. Although perceived by many as a violation against human rights, the practice is defended by the women themselves because they consider it as an essential part of their tradition that ensures the social standing of their family in the community they belong (Lighfoot-Klein). The existence of patriarchal society is attributed to economic reasons. Historically, fathers are known to be keen in identifying their â€Å"real† children, in order to know who is going to handle his property. Hence, it could be perceived that the establishment of systems including moral and religious values, as well as legal aspects became an imperative in order to protect the economic interests that uphold the society. In this regard, it is hard to abandon a custom that benefits the economic interest not only of the family but the whole society as well. The existence of such system guarantees profit for many, thereby catapulting â€Å"dayas† and medical practitioners to resist changes in the practice of female genital mutilation. Likewise, the family woman can gain considerable bride price if she is mutilated by the time of the marriage. Moreover, women continuously submit themselves to FGM for the fear that their husbands will divorce them for a second wife. This perspective serves as a threat for the women in the society who have no economic recourse and access to own properties and relies only on the â€Å"bride price gold that she wears on her body. † As such, it can be concluded that female genital mutilation is the result of the economic interest permeating within the society (Lightfoot-Klein). While many experts hold that female genital mutilation is an African custom, there are few reports regarding the existence of FGM in the Middle Eastern territory. This is understandable because it is difficult to study sexual relations in societies of Middle East. Almost everything regarding sexuality and personal matters are kept in private sphere. Likewise, books and research pertaining to Middle Eastern sexual habits are almost non-existent or at the most, heavily guarded by the comprehensive rules based from the Islamic law. However, recent finding from northern Iraq suggests that FGM is also practiced widely in societies outside of Africa. The case study of Iraqi Kurdistan served as an instructive case. In 2003, a German-Austrian NGO called WADI took the initiative to take medical and social support to the women in Kurdish areas. More than a year later, women who received support spoke about the practice of FGM. It was found out that Kurds used the sunna circumcision and were performed by midwives. Subsequent studies found out that of 1,544 women, 907 had undergone FGM, which further suggests that 60% of the population view mutilation as a normal practice. The discovery in Iraqi Kurdistan debunks the assumption that FGM is solely an African practice. As Fran Hosken quoted: â€Å"There is little doubt that similar practices—excision, child marriage, and putting rock salt into the vagina of women after childbirth—exist in other parts of the Arabian Peninsula and around the Persian Gulf (Hosken 278 qtd in Osten Sacken, and Uwer). The absence of medical records tackling FGM in the whole region does not necessarily mean that the Middle Eastern territories are free from female circumcision. Such issue is left undetected due to the lack of freedom to permit formal studies regarding the subject. Taboo also plays a significant role in the undercutting of researches in Arab nations. Many scholars and NGO in Arab countries prohibits the criticism predominant culture of Arabs and Muslims. Because of these findings many questions were raised by the critics of FGM, one of which is whether the said phenomena is a religious issue in the Middle East (Osten-Sacken and Uwer). Many Muslims and academics from the West claim that FGM is not based from religion rather it is a practice shaped by culture (Simonet qtd in Osten-Sacken and Uwer). However, in a village level, the people who are committed to the practice perceive the action as mandate by the religion. Although the law of Islam does not have any justifications regarding FGM, many Islamic clerics in the Northern part of Iraq advise women to undergo mutilation. If the women wish to abandon such practice, she must suffer the consequence of appearing disreputable in the eyes of the public (Mackie qtd ini Osten-Sacken and Uwer). Some Islamic scholars may disagree with FGM but others refer to the mention of FGM in the Hadith as a defense for the persistence of such practice in Middle East. The claim was further sufficed by the Islamic law specialist Sami Aldeeb Abu Salieh when he stated: The most often mentioned narration reports a debate between Muhammed and Um Habibah (or Um ‘Atiyyah). This woman, known as an exciser of female slaves, was one of a group of women who had immigrated with Muhammed. Having seen her, Muhammad asked her if she kept practicing her profession. She answered affirmatively, adding: unless it is forbidden, and you order me to stop doing it. Muhammed replied: Yes, it is allowed. Come closer so I can teach you: if you cut, do not overdo it, because it brings more radiance to the face, and it is more pleasant for the husband. (Aldeeb Abu Sahlieh 575-622 qtd in Osten- Sacken and Uwen). Aldeeb Abu Sahlieh’s claim is further reinforced by other Islam scholars by stating that Islam condones sunna circumcision but not the pharaonic circumcision (Omer qtd in Osten-Sacken and Uwen), and that since the prophet Muhammad does not condemn the act, thereby making it permissible and cannot be outlawed (Aldeeb Abu Sahlieh qtd in Osten-Sacken). Ultimately, the practice of female genital mutilation in the Middle East may have its roots in the cultural scope of the region. However, its religious ties cannot be disregarded. Effects of Female Genital Mutilation The implications of FGM can be short-term and long term. The immediate consequences of the practice are hemorrhage, acute pain and infection. The infections are commonly acquired from the usage of unsterilized instruments performed in unhygienic areas and introduction of substances. The infections may range from tetanus, general septicamea, chronic pelvic infections, and recurrent urinary tract infections. Recently the transfer of HIV has also been a concern for the FGM researchers (OHCR-UNOG). Obstetric complications are also common among mutilated women. Pregnant mutilated woman put the life of her child in danger because the fetus is at risk of acquiring infectious disease. Likewise, the head of the child may be crushed during the delivery due to damaged birth canal. Furthermore, infibulated women are needed to be opened during child birth and are commonly reinfibulated after every delivery resulting to the scarring of the genitals. Cyst commonly referred to as epidermal clitoral inclusion cyst may also develop among women who undergo type 3 FGM (Rosenthal). Female Genital Mutilation has also psychological implications. These include sexual phobias, depression, and lack of libido which result in the premature ejaculation among women’s partners, personality disorders like rebellion which may eventually lead to psychiatric disorders (Rosenthal). Some evidences indicate that children who undergo FGM experience recurring nightmares (OHCR-UNOG). The socio-economic problems associated with FGM include higher divorce rate and drug abuse which are commonly associated with the males. It was found out that a male with mutilated wife has the tendency of using narcotics to give sexual pleasure to his wives (Rosenthal). Response to Female Genital Mutilation In 1997, World Health Organization (WHO) together with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) issued statements against the continuous practice of female genital mutilation. By 2008, a new statement was issued supporting the increased advocacy of totally condemning FGM which was backed heavily backed by more countries of the United Nation. The 2008 statement include data concerning the past and present practice of FGM. The statement also gave emphasis on the increased recognition of human rights and provided evidences regarding the extent of the issue. The damaging effects of FGM were also presented in order to affect changes in the public policy. From 1997, various government and non-government organizations both in the international and local levels ratified laws abandoning FGM (WHO). Conclusion Based on the study, it is apparent that female genital mutilation predominantly place women in a disadvantaged position. Immense cultural pressure is considered to be the root cause of FGM. However, based from several findings, religion also serves as an encouragement for the existence of such practice. The impact of FGM does not only affect women but also the society where it is widely recognized as a custom. Although, international interventions reduced the prevalence of FGM in African regions during the past years, its practice may not be totally eliminated if practicing communities will not abandon the act itself. Hence, organizations as well as government agencies should further promote awareness regarding the issue of FGM. Works Cited Lighfoot-Klein, Hanny. â€Å"Prisoners of ritual: Some contemporary developments in the history of female genital mutilation. † The Female Genital Mutilation Cutting Education And Networking Project. 30 April-03 May 1991. 10 December 2008 http://www. fgmnetwork. org/Lightfoot-klein/prisonersofritual. htm. Office of the High Commisioner of Human Rights-United Nations Organization. â€Å"Fact sheet no. 23, harmful traditional practices affecting the health of women and children. † Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. 2008. 10 December 2008 http://www. unhchr. ch/html/menu6/2/fs23. htm#ii. Osten-Sacken, Thomas and Uwer, Thomas. â€Å"Is female genital mutilation an Islamic problem? † The Middle East Quarterly. 2007. 10 December 2008 http://www. meforum. org/article/1629#_ftn38. Rosenthal, Sara. The Gynecological Sourcebook. Chicago, IL: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2003. Steiner, Henry, Alston, Philip and Goodman, Ryan. International Human Rights in Context: Law, Politics, Morals: Test And Materials. New York: Oxford University Press US, 2008 World Health Organization. â€Å"Female genital mutilation. † May 2008. 10 December 2008 http://www. who. int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/.

The significance of the title The Awakening :: essays research papers

In comparison to other works such as Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn wherein the title succinctly tells what the story shall contain, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening represents a work whose title can only be fully understood after the incorporation of the themes and content into the reader’s mind, which can only be incorporated by reading the novel itself. The title, The Awakening, paints a vague mental picture for the reader at first and does not fully portray what content the novel will possess. After thorough reading of the novel, one can understand that the title represents the main character, Edna Pontellier’s, sexual awakening and metaphorical resurrection that takes place in the plot as opposed to not having a clue on what the plot will be about. Edna Pontellier first faces a form of awakening when she encounters another character that plays a musical instrument. As the musician plays, the crowd reacts nonchalantly and for the most part disregards it as just another performance with the exception of Mrs. Pontellier whom breaks out into tears due to the vivid imagery that the music brings into her mind. The musician responds to Mrs. Pontellier by telling her that she is the only one who truly speaks her language. This form of awakening brings about one of the themes in the novel in that as a person learns to begin to express themselves, they find that there is a lesser concentration of people who can understand the way that one expresses themselves. This becomes of greater relevance as Edna begins to express herself through the use of her artwork. The sexual aspect of Edna’s awakening is formed through her relationship with a supporting character, Robert LeBrun. In the beginning of the novel, Robert assigns himself to become the helper of Mrs. Pontellier and his advances help to crack the barrier in which Edna is placed in due to her role as a woman of the Victorian era. Her feelings begin to manifest themselves as she intends to liberate herself from her husband and run away with Robert. He on the other hand has no intention of having a sexual affair because of the role placed upon him as a man of the Victorian era which is not to destroy families. Her quest for complete independence ultimately brings her to committing suicide at the end of the story. Her suicide does not represent a disappointment in how she cannot conform to the society around her but a final awakening and symbol for her liberation.

Control Leads to Destruction in Ken Keseys One Flew Over the Cuckoos

Control Leads to Destruction in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, is about patients and doctors in a mental institution.   The author talks a lot about what goes on in this institute.   The main points in this book deal with control, be it the character of McMurphy who is unable to handle control, or Nurse Ratched the head nurse on the ward whose job requires her to be in control. The world of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is dark; it is a place where control leads to destruction, but the novel shows through the character of The Chief that there is still hope if the people who are being controlled have the power to resist.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nurse Ratched is a mean woman whose job revolves around control. She depends on people who are less fortunate than her to make a living. Her need to control others is an unfortunate trait that she has because it makes people unable to think for themselves and it also leads to destruction.   One example of this is when Nurse Ratched caught one of the patients (Billy Bibbit) with a woman.   The nurse feeling the need to control Billy threatened to tell his mother.   Billy begged Nurse Ratched not to tell her but when his requests were refused Billy slashed his neck with a broken bottle and killed himself.   Billy's life was destroyed because of Nurse Ratched's need to control others.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another place that we see the dark world is when we examine the relationship between Nurse Ratched and R.P. McMurphy.  McMurphy is a happy and rebellious man.   He is not used to being controlled, so when he gets into the institution he refuses to be controlled by Nurse Ratche... ... at".   At the end of the novel when McMurphy is given a lobotomy, Chief realizes that he is not so safe.   Chief escapes from the institution and runs away to Canada.   Chief is a figure of hope in the novel he shows us that there is still a way out for those who are being controlled.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest shows us darkness, and it shows us a world where control leads to destruction.   It shows us lives destroyed, people who are so obsessed with control that they do not think of others even if their job requires them to do so.   However, it shows us hope.   Hope for those who are being controlled, hope for those who just can't take the harsh strict rules that are imposed upon them.   The world of One Flew Over the Cuckoos nest is like a dark grey cloud, a dark grey cloud with a silver lining.

A Memorable Experience: My Son’s Graduation Day

Memorable Experience Having children in my life make me feel more responsible. I have two children, teenagers, Elvis 17 years old and David 14 years old. My husband and I raise them with love and devotion but It comes a moment and we realize that they are growing up very fast. My younger son finished eight grade In Forest Middle School. Celebrating my son s graduation was a memorable experience for me. A good looking Is Important for this event. For examples, he was dressed In pants, and shirt, and tie. He looked Like a man.He Is taller than me and that It means too such for me because I m very short for him. And sure I was In perfect dress for that event, too. I bought a beautiful dress especially for that day. I invited my mother to be with us in that special day. The ceremony was so emotional. For instance, the principal speech was so emotional and encouraging the student for their future, so in the end of it everybody were in cheer. Another emotional moment was when one of the st udent sang the national anthem. She did it in perfect way and all the people liked it.And the third and important nominal moment was when I heard MO son ‘s name by the principal f the school who gave him the diploma. I was in tearful from emotions. His name was between honor students. He is such a nice child. He never gives me hard time during his life. My mother and I felt both proud of him. We took some pictures to memorize those moments, with teachers, who felt so proud for my son, and his friends and then we left. The party for graduated student is the cherry on cake. The party took place in a small bar. He did know nothing about it. The party was a surprise for him. Y younger sister was prepared the party. The adornments and lour balloons decorated the place. All my sisters and brothers with their husbands and wife with their children ,too, were there to help her and to celebrate with my family. There also were friends, and relatives, and neighbors, too. The drinks, the m usic, and the food were amazing. Everybody had fun that day. We danced and we sang Albanian music all late afternoon. To memorize those moments we did pictures and videos. Celebrating my son ‘s graduation was the most wonderful and amazing moment for my family especially for younger one.A Memorable Experience: My Son's Graduation Day By trendily with love and devotion but it comes a moment and we realize that they are growing up very fast. My younger son finished eight grade in Forest Middle School. Celebrating my son ‘s graduation was a memorable experience for me. A good looking is important for this event. For examples, he was dressed in pants, and shirt, and tie. He looked like a man.

Slavery and the Development of the United States essays

Slavery and the Development of the United States essays "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." This is what Frederick Douglass preached to black Americans during the harsh years of slavery in the US; he believed that blacks needed to fight for their rights. Slavery played an important role in shaping the young nation of America. The "shocking and bloody" practices of slavery slowed the country's development and criticized the morals and values of the American people stated in the Constitution. Slaves had become so tired of their awful conditions that they had begun resisting in several ways. Acts of vandalism, slave revolts, refusal to work and running away on the Underground Railroad were some methods of slave resistance that challenged the development of the United States. In these ways, slaves eventually gained their rights and equality, but with drastic, and lasting effects on the growth of the USA. Although slave revolts in the United States in the 1800s were not very frequent or major, they had significant impacts on whites as well as blacks. One of these revolts was led by Denmark Vesey, a former slave who purchased his freedom with his winnings from a lottery. Vesey planned to burn down Charleston, South Carolina and initiate a revolt of slaves in the area. The plan, however, was betrayed and 35 blacks, including Vesey, were hanged. Afterward, Vesey's example was viewed as "one of the most courageous ever to threaten the racist foundations of America." Another famous rebellion was that of Nat Turner's in Southampton County, Virginia. Claiming religious visions, Turner gathered around 70 slaves and went from plantation to plantation, brutally murdering 55 whites, including men, women, and children. He was eventually hanged along with 80 others. This threw the south into a panic and made slaveholders determined to reinforce the security of the slave system. Revolts challenge d the development of the young, inexperienced United States because they caused conflicts and chaos...

Free Essays on The Importance Of Categorization On Institutional Forms And Its Problems

The Importance of Categorization on Institutional Forms and It’s Problems America is a place of varied races and ethnicity. Everyone who resides in the United States are supposed to be viewed as equals, yet we are asked to categorize ourselves on many institutional forms. Whether it is for school, for a job, or while applying for a Social Security Card, we are asked to pick a category to put ourselves into on these important forms. It is only because our identity is crucial in the multi-racial country today, to ourselves as well as the government. The categories on most institutional forms can lead our views of race, ethnicity and other aspects of our identity into mistaken judgments because of insufficient information. America today has become a diverse nation with many different backgrounds ever since the early 1500’s. The categories on institutional forms, which ask the addressee to categorize his or her race, are not sufficient enough to satisfy the people of America today and cause people’s views of other races, ethnicity, and aspects of our identity into mistaken directions. The categories leave out people with more than one ethnicity. There is not one category for a multi-racial person except for the option of the â€Å"Other† box. A man who is of two different racial groups can be offended when there is no other choice but to check off the â€Å"Other† box because being viewed as an â€Å"other† can lower one’s sense of worth. An â€Å"other† is someone not of the everyday norm, or in another word, a minority. Also, the person may feel angry since he is not able to state who he really is, being from two different racial groups. Categorization on institutional forms keeps disorder in our society because it does not present everyone at the same level. The classifications on these forms imply a hierarchy, which have negative effects. People may keep the opinion of certain races or ethnic backgrounds as being be... Free Essays on The Importance Of Categorization On Institutional Forms And It's Problems Free Essays on The Importance Of Categorization On Institutional Forms And It's Problems The Importance of Categorization on Institutional Forms and It’s Problems America is a place of varied races and ethnicity. Everyone who resides in the United States are supposed to be viewed as equals, yet we are asked to categorize ourselves on many institutional forms. Whether it is for school, for a job, or while applying for a Social Security Card, we are asked to pick a category to put ourselves into on these important forms. It is only because our identity is crucial in the multi-racial country today, to ourselves as well as the government. The categories on most institutional forms can lead our views of race, ethnicity and other aspects of our identity into mistaken judgments because of insufficient information. America today has become a diverse nation with many different backgrounds ever since the early 1500’s. The categories on institutional forms, which ask the addressee to categorize his or her race, are not sufficient enough to satisfy the people of America today and cause people’s views of other races, ethnicity, and aspects of our identity into mistaken directions. The categories leave out people with more than one ethnicity. There is not one category for a multi-racial person except for the option of the â€Å"Other† box. A man who is of two different racial groups can be offended when there is no other choice but to check off the â€Å"Other† box because being viewed as an â€Å"other† can lower one’s sense of worth. An â€Å"other† is someone not of the everyday norm, or in another word, a minority. Also, the person may feel angry since he is not able to state who he really is, being from two different racial groups. Categorization on institutional forms keeps disorder in our society because it does not present everyone at the same level. The classifications on these forms imply a hierarchy, which have negative effects. People may keep the opinion of certain races or ethnic backgrounds as being be...

20 Email Marketing Best Practices That Will Improve Results

20 Email Marketing Best Practices That Will Improve Results Emails are incredibly powerful. A third of customers  have visited a website or purchased something just from seeing an email in their inbox without ever actually opening the email. That’s the power of email! Whether you’re running a blog, selling products online, or collecting sales leads, everybody wants a healthy email list. But how do you make that email list an engaged one? By following best practices. Consider the following 20 tips your complete guide to an excellent email marketing program that boosts open and click rates, reduces churn, and increases your subscriber lifetime value! Let’s get started. 20 Email Marketing Best Practices That Will Improve ResultsImplement Email Best Practices With Three Free Templates This post is packed with actionable advice. To help you execute your email marketing even better, weve included these three free templates: Email Marketing Calendar: Plan all your email content in advance and get more organized. Email Subject Line Template: Make writing subject lines easy with these simple fill-in-the-blank templates. Its a great complement to the Email Subject Line Tester. Email Subject Line A/B Test Template: Record results from A/B tests and refine your messaging over time.20 #email #marketing best practices + 3 free templates = success.Infographic: Best Practices, At a Glance. Email marketing is an art and science. Navigate its complexities successfully by following these 20 simple best practices. Check out this infographic rounding up 20 top #email #marketing best practices:1. Send to Yourself First. This one feels like a no-brainer, but when you reflect on how few people actually proofread their own emails, you quickly realize it isn't. Always send yourself a test email first to ensure that: There are no typos The images show up The format looks great on both your desktop and smartphone All the links work There is nothing glaringly wrong with the email Double-check both the HTML and plain-text versions. Always send email newsletters to yourself first.2. Do NOT Spam. This is another no-brainer, but it’s so important it bears repeating: do not spam. Spamminess can refer to poor judgment within the email itself - irrelevant content, all-uppercase subject lines, etc. - but it mainly refers to how you collect and engage with your email subscribers. Buying email lists or signing people up without them expressly opting in first is an absolute no no. Do not do this. If you think you can get away with this, know that you can’t. Purchased lists are associated with extremely high unsubscribe and spam rates. Get too many of those, and you could get banned from your email marketing provider. Other best practices include: adding your physical address somewhere in the email (the footer is a good option). giving people a way to unsubscribe (most reputable email marketing providers include this by default). Leave out either of these, and you are breaking anti-spam laws. Are you unknowingly breaking anti-spam email marketing laws? Find out (and read 19 more best...3. Make it Easy to Subscribe. Since you won’t be purchasing email lists, you want to make it as easy and as enticing as possible for people to subscribe to your email. Here are some ideas: Embed signup CTAs throughout your website or blog. Include a pre-checked checkbox besides any other form where people enter their email address (such as a member registration or checkout page). Add a signup form to your Facebook page. Regularly tweet out a link to your subscribe page. Send your first email within 24 hours of subscribing, if not immediately. With human attention spans officially  shorter than that of goldfish, you can’t risk people forgetting what they signed up for. Make it easy for subcribers to get on your #email list.4. Use a Double Opt-in. Because sharing your email address has become so commonplace these days, people don’t always realize they’re signing up to get overloaded with emails. This is why most experts recommend a double opt-in process. A double opt-in  involves sending a person a confirmation email after they sign up, letting them know that they signed up and requiring them to click a button to confirm they indeed want to stay signed up. Keep your double opt-in email short and sweet like Haute Hijab does below, emphasizing the confirmation button and placing it above-the-fold. Below that button, include validation of why signing up for your email is a good idea: it’s the best way to avoid FOMO on your best offers and freshest content. Here's the confirmation email button: Here's why email marketers should use a double opt-in.5. Schedule Smart. The best day and time to send your emails depends on your unique customer set. However, you can make some educated guesses using the research others have already done.   helpfully aggregated studies from the top email providers to conclude that the best day and time to send emails is Tuesdays around 10am. Start there, and then test and optimize based off your own data. Remember that these times are specific to your recipient’s time zones, which may or may not match yours. Depending on the size of your customer base, you may segment your list based on time zones (more on segmentation later). Recommended Reading: What 10 Studies Say About the Best Time to Send Email 6. Develop a Cadence. Speaking of timing, how frequently do you want to send your emails? Much of your email will be automated based on your user’s actions (e.g. double opt-in confirmations, order confirmation and shipping notifications), but you want to touch subscribers at least once a month. To support this goal, brainstorm an email calendar that corresponds to your content marketing, event marketing, and other promotional calendars. This helps keep you sane while ensuring you stay in touch. Plan sales emails and product launch announcements ahead of time. Help people prepare for the holidays by emailing gift guides and encouraging them to make reservations now vs. later. Not sure how much is too much? If you start sending more emails and witness a downward trend in your open and click rates but an uptick in your unsubscribes, that’s a telltale sign that you’re sending too much. Why is developing a consistent cadence important for #email #marketing?7. Give People Options. Of course, rather than guessing for them, you can always let people choose the frequency themselves. When Hubspot started offering separate newsletter subscriptions options for their blog, organized by frequency and topics, their subscriber churn rate went way down: Other ideas include: Letting people opt for â€Å"less† email Letting people â€Å"pause† their subscription for 30 or 90 days Sometimes people care about your brand but they’re simply overwhelmed or taking a healthy hiatus from email. Help them stay in touch by letting them choose the frequency of your emails. Recommended Reading: 21+ Easy Ways to Build an Email List That Will Skyrocket By 140% in 1 Year 8. Focus on Your Subject Line... Subject lines are critically important. These are the headline that convince a subscriber your email is worth opening. That means you should do everything within your power to set yourself up for success here. Research and tinker to find the two best options possible, then A/B test among those with a small subset of your subscribers. Then, repeat this process for every single email you send. Things that do well in subject lines include: The recipient’s name A tasteful emoji or two 30-50 characters tops Action verbs A clear and irresistible value proposition that matches the content of your email Consistency (Some emails, like blog newsletters, perform best with the same subject line everytime - it helps readers know what to expect so they keep an eye for it in their inbox) Things that don’t do so great are: Spammy keywords (urgent, buy now, win, free) All uppercase letters Typos Overuse of emojis Deceptive subject lines that don’t match the email content (these lead to unhappy subscribers who unsubscribe and grow to resent you as a brand) Remember: the goal of your subject line is to get the people who care about the content within your email to open it, not to get opens at any cost. Editor's Note: You can also use 's Email Subject Line Tester to optimize every one you send.https://.com/email-subject-line-tester 9. ...But Don’t Forget the Sender. Perhaps even more important the subject line, the â€Å"from† name  can literally make or break your email. Sender names tend to perform best when they’re personalized. Instead of just your company name, use a person’s name, like â€Å"Your Name from Your Company.† And never use the default â€Å"No-Reply @ Your Company† option - it’s impersonal, and frankly, frustrating. Use a real name and assign a team member to respond to emails. Don’t forget your pre-header either. This is the preview text that displays after the subject line in most email clients. If you don’t set it, the client will preview something from your email which can look messy and unprofessional. Test these just as vigorously as your subject lines and sender names. Recommended Reading: Everything You Need to Know About Writing Awesome Email Subject Lines 10. Keep It Simple, Stupid. On to the body of the email. The goal here is to grab your reader’s attention quickly and follow up with a strong CTA. Regardless of whether you want them to sign up, order a product, or read your blog post, organize your copy using the â€Å"power of three†: Here's another example from Dropbox: Where possible, limit your CTAs. Try to keep it to one main CTA and place it above-the fold. Also make your CTA a bright, beautiful button that’s easy to find and click - otherwise you’re making people search for it. Before you send, double-check your work by sharing the email with a colleague. Can they instantly (within a few seconds) relay back to you the CTA? If so, move forward with your email. If not, do not pass go. Your email needs work as the message is not clear. Recommended Reading: How to Write a Call to Action In a Template With 6 Examples 11. Add Alt Text to Images and Buttons. Alt text isn’t just for images on your website. Adding them to your emails helps users understand what they’re reading, in case the HTML doesn’t render properly or their email client blocks images by default. Without alt text, readers will simply see a blank space where a button or image used to be. With alt text, they’ll still be able to read the action you want to take and understand where to click. Add alt text to all of your images and CTA buttons, and hyperlink them to your landing pages while you’re at it. Don't forget to add alt-text to all your images (plus 19 more email marketing best practices12. Send the Right Emails. The longer a person has subscribed, the more personalized the emails they receive from you should be - because you’re collecting information from their purchases, their interactions with your support team, and the content they’re clicking on from your previous email sends†¦ right? Right. But at a minimum, most successful email marketing programs tend to include the following types of emails: Double opt-in for subscribing (see tip #4) Welcome/thank you for signing up Some form of blog newsletter Important brand announcements Request for feedback or online review Abandoned cart reminder, order confirmation, shipping confirmation (for e-commerce) What’s the one type of email you should never send? The kind you send, just to send it. Every single email you send should have a purpose that provides value to your customers. Their inbox is not the place to simply remind them of your existence. No one liked the poke button on Facebook, remember? Recommended Reading: How to Get Bigger Results From Email Marketing With Kim Courvoisier From Campaign Monitor 13. Create Drip Campaigns. Drip campaigns are another successful type of email companies send. Drip campaigns extend the water metaphor of the sales funnel. Here’s an example of what a drip campaign might look like for a new e-commerce blog subscriber: Welcome email: â€Å"Thanks for subscribing! Here’s a % off coupon.† A few days later: â€Å"Hope you’re enjoying our blog. Here are our top articles you may have missed.† One week after that: â€Å"If you like our blog, you’ll love our whitepaper about X! It goes into way more detail.† If the prospect downloads the whitepaper, you might then enter them into a new drip campaign. If you’re wondering how you can create drip campaigns, start by knowing your audience. Once you know your audience and define your user personas, you can segment your email list. Different personas get different campaigns with copy choices, send frequency, and content catered specifically to them. What's the benefit to creating email drip campaigns?14. Automate Your Outreach. Drip campaigns are just one type of automated email you can create. There are all sorts of behaviors that could trigger different marketing emails, such as: Someone who subscribes to your blog receives a welcome email sharing your most popular articles. Someone who buys an item gets notified of future sales in that item’s category, plus any new styles of that particular item. Someone who abandons their shopping cart  receives a reminder of the items in their cart, with a steep discount or an urgent call to buy while supplies still alst.Are you automating your #email outreach?15. Keep It True to You. Your emails should match your brand. The colors and font choices should be the same. The tone should read like the same voice of the person who wrote your web copy or your latest Facebook post. However, that’s not to say you can’t give your emails a special flair. Some brands have done this to great success, so they’re essentially known for an outstanding email marketing program. Warby Parker  is one such example: Recommended Reading: How to Define Your Brand Positioning and Brand Voice 16. Encourage Sharing. Want more subscribers? Ask people to share your email! Encourage recipients to forward your email to anyone else who might be interested. Link the CTA to prepopulate a new email message with the subject and body text already pre-filled. For example: Share this email with your friends! Incorporate social sharing, too, but do so with purpose: Want more eyes on your content? Add social buttons for people to share the newsletter link itself on social media. Want more followers? Add social buttons that link to your social media channels. Recommended Reading: Why People Share: The Psychology of Social Sharing 17. Optimize for Mobile. How many of us have spent time waiting in line at the coffee shop checking our emails? Over half of emails are now read on mobile devices, and that trend should only continue as people increasingly rely on mobile devices over desktop computers. That means your email needs to be easy to read, view, and click on mobile. It should load fast (aim for 300KB or less), and it shouldn't require too much scrolling. Keep your email as short as possible, and go heavy on the imagery (while compressing it to ensure optimal load times). Make CTA buttons and any links 45-57 pixels tall to match the size of adult fingertips. Limit the width of your email body to 650 pixels so it displays nicely on most phones. Recommended Reading: Mobile Marketing Strategy: How to Build One the Best Way 18. Test, Test, and Test Again. Nearly all email marketing providers have A/B testing functionality built-in. Many offer multivariate testing as part of an upgrade. Either way, there is absolutely no reason for you to not test your emails. Here are just a few examples of what you can test: Subject lines and preheader text Send times and days of the week Format and layout Featured image or copy CTA placements and types of buttons

Reaction to Shrines and Temples of Nicco Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reaction to Shrines and Temples of Nicco - Essay Example The Shinto religious outlook of Japan embodies a unique concept as it emphasizes man’s relationship with nature. Mountains and forests are regarded as objects of spiritual worship and accordingly temples have been constructed in nature’s background. From very early days, the Nikko mountain has been worshipped in the country. During the late 8th century, Shodo, a Buddhist monk constructed the first temples on the slopes of the Nikko mountain. The Nikko temples gained further importance as a sacred shrine in the Kanto region during the end of the 12th century when the Kamakura Shogunate was established in the same region. Gradually, the temples and Shrines of Nicco became a symbol of national sovereignty. In 1871, the Meiji Government decided to divide the Nikko religious buildings site into three divisions representing three different religious groups. These were the Futarasan-jinja and the Toshogu of the Shinto faith and the Rinno-ji belonging to the Buddhist ideology. This decision involved the movement and restoration of certain buildings at the Nikko shrine1. The Imperial Palace of the Forbidden City in Beijing is almost like a statement of the power and grandeur of the Ming dynasty. The formal structure of the Palace is a reflection of the strong authority of the rulers of this lineage. The Chinese civilization is one of the oldest civilizations of the world and the Imperial Palaces of both Beijing and Shenyang are a testimony to that grand cultural heritage. The Forbidden City is located at the centre of Beijing, to the north of the Tiananmen Square. The Imperial Palace is now known as the Palace Museum, since UNESCO has converted into a world heritage site. The Forbidden City bears the look of a formal place. Most of the important buildings in the palace complex are symmetrically arranged and are built down the centre, north and south of the City. In

Factors to consider when setting wages Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Factors to consider when setting wages - Essay Example It is necessary to consider some parameters when determining the wages to be paid to employees. When a multinational corporation is operating in a foreign country, the human resource director has to set the appropriate wages for both the local employees and expatriates. There exist differences in the cost of living between the host country and the home country. When expatriates move to a new environment, they expect some changes in their salaries. This is because there may be hardships experienced while working in a foreign country. The wages of expatriate managers and engineers in the case of multinational food processing company is likely to be influenced by the salary scales in their home countries. On the contrary, the wages of local managers, engineers, and manufacturing staff will be determined by factors in the local markets (Ajami, 2006). Factors to consider while setting the wages for expatriate managers and engineers The calculation of expatriate pay borrows a lot from the wages that the expatriates could receive if they were working in their home country. ... For example, the expatriates may decide to settle in the capital cities of Australia, Russia, and India. The cost of living in the capital cities is always high since some of the lavish estates tend to be occupied by the elite and the political class. Given the high cost of living in such places, it would be vital for the HR director to offer competitive wages to the expatriate engineers and managers (Ajami, 2006). Since multinational companies establish their businesses in the key towns and cities of the host countries, the setting of wages for the expatriates should consider the high cost of living in such cities. Therefore, as a human resource director, I would set wages that can be adequate for the expatriate managers and engineers to cater for their needs. Another vital factor, which I would consider as a human resource director while determining the wages of expatriate managers and engineers, is the law governing the compensation packages for the expatriates. Czinkota (2008, p. 323) observes that while setting the wages of expatriate managers, it is crucial to consider both the law of the home country and the host country laws regarding the wages of expatriates. As a human resource director, it is vital to have the knowledge of both the local laws and the laws of the host country regarding payment of wages. This is remarkably crucial in order to ensure that the set wages do not conflict the local laws. The laws of host countries dictate the standard wages that should be paid to expatriates. Setting high wages for the expatriates may contradict the local laws in the host countries and lead to conflicts between the multinational corporation and the government of the host country. The other crucial factor to consider

Marketing Plan Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Marketing Plan - Assignment Example The marketing objectives form the underlying base for the formulation of the 7Ps of marketing mix prepared for the product of Samsung Electronics. The report also includes an analysis of how the marketing strategies would be implemented in launching and marketing the Samsung Galaxy S2 in the market of the United States. The report is suitably concluded by an evaluation of the marketing strategies done in order to analyse and assess the expected impacts of the marketing strategies in the new market. The evaluation also includes an assessment of how the formulated marketing strategies can be profitable for Samsung Electronics and a short recommendation of how the marketing strategies can be improved for continued success. Samsung Group is a transnational conglomerate company of South Korea. It has its headquarters in Samsung Town in Seoul. The company has many supplementary and affiliated business among which most of them are under the brand name of Samsung and it is the largest business conglomerated in South Korea. In 1938, Lee Byung-chul founded the company Samsung. The company has diversified itself into many new directions like textiles, insurances, retail, food processing and securities. In 1960’s the company started its business in electronics industry. Samsung group was been separated into four business groups after Lee Byung-chul died in 1987. In 1983, the company started producing personal computers and in 1988 it started producing semiconductors and telecommunication devices and networks. Samsung was considered to be a producer of low end products that used to be cheap in comparison to the other costly Japanese products. The company was also known to produce reliable and products of high quality which made the company gain lot of popularity among the customers and also in the market. By the end of 1992,

Porters Diamond Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Porters Diamond - Essay Example The first aspect is the strategy and structure of firms. He explains that competition makes businesses to increase their innovation and productivity. Second, he describes the demand conditions factor. Here, he explains that firms face pressure due to increased demand, and this forces them to improve their competitiveness through an increase in quality. Third, he illustrates the nature of related supporting industries. Here, he reveals that the distance between such industries with a firm determines the exchange of information and ideas. In factor conditions, he explains that the factors of production are not inherited but created. He completes his model with the element of a government. He illustrates that the government only acts as a catalyst to push companies to competitive performance. However, Porter’s research has various limitations. First, Porter did not explore how culture influences the competitiveness of a nation in his framework. He did not explain how attitudes or social norms of a population towards authority affect the organization of firms. Second, it was incorrect to mention that the strategy and structure of companies are due to economic circumstances rather than culture. Cultural factors are the reasons for the creation of some enterprises such as Japanese business system of Keiretsu. Conclusively, although Porter's framework is incomplete, it is valid. Academics such as Dunning have extended on the framework and have revealed on the merits of the concept in explaining national competitiveness.

Separation of Powers Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Separation of Powers - Research Paper Example ght, the method of creating a sense of equal measure and power in which to form a government that serves its people instead of serving power for the sake of power, is indicative of the theories of freedom that drove the framers of the Constitution during its inception. With focus on three specific forms of the checks and balance method of construction, the equality of governance can be examined and assessed. In Article I, Section 8 of the constitution it states that â€Å"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States† which is followed by, â€Å"To borrow money on the credit of the United States;† (United). According to this clause, the legislative branch of government is responsible for the economic health of the state. The following power allows for the ability for this branch to borrow money on behalf of the United States. This power provides a framework for the government to develop its economic interests and act as an agent of management for the financial considerations of the nation. The business of maintaining and running the nation has been put into the hands of Congress, allowing for the decisions that most directly affect the financial well-being of the country to be considered. Without the actions of the Congress, the employees of government cannot get paid, the budget considerations cannot be met, and the expense of running a country would not have administration. By the use of this power, the Congress has the power to create and oversee the budget, while determining the proper use of the available funds to allocate to needs. With this considerable power, the legislative section of the government has the ability to plot the course of the country in regard to the funding of war, the federal grants to the states for schools and roads,

Porters Diamond Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Porters Diamond - Essay Example The first aspect is the strategy and structure of firms. He explains that competition makes businesses to increase their innovation and productivity. Second, he describes the demand conditions factor. Here, he explains that firms face pressure due to increased demand, and this forces them to improve their competitiveness through an increase in quality. Third, he illustrates the nature of related supporting industries. Here, he reveals that the distance between such industries with a firm determines the exchange of information and ideas. In factor conditions, he explains that the factors of production are not inherited but created. He completes his model with the element of a government. He illustrates that the government only acts as a catalyst to push companies to competitive performance. However, Porter’s research has various limitations. First, Porter did not explore how culture influences the competitiveness of a nation in his framework. He did not explain how attitudes or social norms of a population towards authority affect the organization of firms. Second, it was incorrect to mention that the strategy and structure of companies are due to economic circumstances rather than culture. Cultural factors are the reasons for the creation of some enterprises such as Japanese business system of Keiretsu. Conclusively, although Porter's framework is incomplete, it is valid. Academics such as Dunning have extended on the framework and have revealed on the merits of the concept in explaining national competitiveness.

Insulin Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Insulin - Term Paper Example The termination of gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis results to restoration of normal glucose levels in the blood. The action of insulin in the body is usually brief and the level blood sugar changes after the action of insulin subsides. Besides the control of blood sugar, production of insulin initiates a series of metabolic reactions that are mainly mediated by the changes in expression of over 100 genes in the body (O’Brien and Granner, 1117). One of the major effects of insulin in such physiological processes includes the regulation in the expression of genes that stimulate absorption of amino acids, metabolisms of lipids mainly in the muscles and adipose tissue. In addition, insulin affects the expression of genes used for growth, development and survival of somatic cells (Rhodes and White8) Alfred Sanger did the first sequencing of amino acids that make up insulin hormone in 1955 (BCBC 1). According to BCBC (1) insulin is the first protein to have its amino acid chain determined and sequenced. Moreover, the hormone is the first â€Å"peptide protein measured by radioimmunoassay technique†. In addition, insulin is the first hormone to be produced in microorganisms using recombinant DNA technology, a process that was successfully conducted in the 1970s. Since then, insulin produced by recombinant DNA technology has been used for treating diabetes, replacing earlier hormones that were produced from purification of insulin from animal species (BCBC1) Disruption of insulin synthesis in the body causes several physiological changes in the body. One of the major impacts of low glucose production is hyperglycemia, a medical condition characterized by an abnormal increase of glucose in the blood plasma (Steiner and James 42). Other effects include poor growth and development of the body. Diabetic patients

Cause and Effects of Watching Too Much Television Essay Example for Free

Cause and Effects of Watching Too Much Television Essay Cause and effects of watching too much television Discoveries and invention of devices are always welcome till we, humans, find a way to abuse its benefits and be adversely affected by it. This was the case when Wilhelm Roentgen discovered x-ray and within five years, the British Army was using a mobile x-ray unit to locate bullets and shrapnel in wounded soldiers in the Sudan. Television was also invented with positive thoughts in mind – there would be no national borders, education and communication would be worldwide, etc. However, we are now trying to overcome its physiological and psychological adverse effects on human beings. People mainly watch television for entertainment especially when they are bored or â€Å"have nothing to do†. It is also used for relaxing, as most people like to sit and back and relax while watching their favourite television show. Watching the television however, may become addictive and a hard habit to break. There are many effects of watching too much television. One of the physiological effects of watching television in excessive amounts is eye-strain. It is true that there are specifications for watching television; television should be 5 m. away from the eye, the room should be adequately lit, television should be placed at the same height with our eyes, etc. However, these do not prevent our eyes from getting tired if we keep watching television for a long time. Another effect is obesity, which is widely observed in people who like watching television and eating snacks everyday (there is even a term â€Å"television snacks† to refer to fast food that is suitable for eating in front of the television). Television is such a powerful machine that people cannot get away from it – it is addictive. Apart from the physiological effects, television also causes psychological effects. One is a result of being exposed to violence. After seeing so many violent scenes on television, people start considering violent actions normal and they lose their sensitivity to their environment. Partly connected to this effect, the interpersonal communication among people decreases. Being insensitive to the suffering of other people causes people to become alienated. Also, after coming home from work people seek to relax n front of the television, and generally people prefer watching television to talking to each other. This issue is very important since lack of interpersonal relationships mostly end with divorces. Shortly, inventions are meant to be beneficial for human beings, if we know how to benefit from them. Television is one of such inventions that need to be used for the right purpose only – being educated and entertained for a reasonable (according to age) period of time. We may, then, be safe from or at least reduce the adverse physiological and psychological effects of watching too much television.

NoSQL Databases | Research Paper

NoSQL Databases | Research Paper In the world of enterprise computing, we have seen many changes in platforms, languages, processes, and architectures. But throughout the entire time one thing has remained unchanged relational databases. For almost as long as we have been in the software profession, relational databases have been the default choice for serious data storage, especially in the world of enterprise applications. There have been times when a database technology threatened to take a piece of the action, such as object databases in the 1990s, but these alternatives never got anywhere. In this research paper, a new challenger on the block was explored under the name of NoSQL. It came into existence because of there was a need to handle large volumes of data which forced a shift to building bigger hardware platforms through large number of commodity servers. The term NoSQL applies to a number of recent non-relational databases such as Cassandra, MongoDB, Neo4j, and Azure Table storage. NoSQL databases provided the advantage of building systems that were more performing, scaled much better, and were easier to program with. The paper considers that we are now in a world of Polyglot Persistence where different technologies are used by enterprises for the management of data. For this reason, architects should know what these technologies are and should be able to decide which ones to use for various purposes. It provides information to decide whether NoSQL databases can be seriously considered for future projects. The attempt is to provide enough background information on NoSQL databases on how they work and what advantages they will bring to the table. Table of Contents Introduction Literature Technical Aspects Document Oriented Merits Demerits Case Study MongoDB Key Value Merits Demerits Case Study Azure Table Storage Column Stores Merits Demerits Case Study Cassandra Graphs Merits Demerits Case Study Neo4j Conclusion References Introduction NoSQL is commonly interpreted as not only SQL. It is a class of database management systems and is does not adhere to the traditional RDBMS model. NoSQl databases handle a large variety of data including structured, unstructured or semi-structured data. NoSQL database systems are highly optimized for retrieval and append operations and offer less functionality other than record storage. The run time performance is reduced compared to full SQL systems but there is increased gain in scalability and performance for some data models [3]. NoSQL databases prove to be beneficial when a huge quantity of data is to be processed and a relational model does not satisfy the datas nature. What truly matters is the ability to store and retrieve huge amount of data, but not the relationships between them. This is especially useful for real-time or statistical analysis for growing amount of data. The NoSQL community is experiencing a rapid change. It is transitioning from the community-driven platform development to an application-driven market. Facebook, Digg and Twitter have been successful in using NoSQL and scaling up their web infrastructure. Many successful attempts have been made in developing NOSQL applications in the fields of image/signal processing, biotechnology, and defense. The traditional relational database systems vendors also assess the strategy of developing NoSQL solutions and integrating them in existing offers. Literature In recent years with expansion of cloud computing, problems of data-intensive services have become prominent. The cloud computing seems to be the future architecture to support large-scale and data intensive applications, although there are certain requirements of applications that cloud computing does not fulfill sufficiently [7]. For years, development of information systems has relied on vertical scaling, but this approach requires higher level of skills and it is not reliable in some cases. Database partitioning across multiple cheap machines added dynamically, horizontal scaling or scaling-out can ensure scalability in a more effective and cheaper way. Todays NoSQL databases designed for cheap hardware and using the shared-nothing architecture can be a better solution. The term NoSQL was coined by Carlo Strozzi in 1998 for his Open Source, Light Weight Database which had no SQL interface. Later, in 2009, Eric Evans, a Rackspace employee, reused the term for databases which are non-relational, distributed and do not conform to atomicity, consistency, isolation and durability. In the same year, no:sql(east) conference held in Atlanta, USA, NoSQL was discussed a lot. And eventually NoSQL saw an unprecedented growth [1]. Scalable and distributed data management has been the vision of the database research community for more than three decades. Many researches have been focused on designing scalable systems for both update intensive workloads as well as ad-hoc analysis workloads [5]. Initial designs include distributed databases for update intensive workloads, and parallel database systems for analytical workloads. Parallel databases grew to become large commercial systems, but distributed database systems were not very successful. Changes in the data access patterns of applications and the need to scale out to thousands of commodity machines led to the birth of a new class of systems referred to as NoSQL databases which are now being widely adopted by various enterprises. Data processing has been viewed as a constant battle between parallelism and concurrency [4]. Database acts as a data store with an additional protective software layer which is constantly being bombarded by transactions. To handle all the transactions, databases have two choices at each stage in computation: parallelism, where two transactions are being processed at the same time; and concurrency, where a processor switches between the two transactions rapidly in the middle of the transaction. Parallelism is faster, but to avoid inconsistencies in the results of the transaction, coordinating software is required which is hard to operate in parallel as it involves frequent communication between the parallel threads of the two transactions. At a global level, it becomes a choice between distributed and scale-up single-system processing. In certain instances, relational databases designed for scale-up systems and structured data did not work well. For indexing and serving massive amounts of rich text, for semi-structured or unstructured data, and for streaming media, a relational database would require consistency between data copies in a distributed environment and will not be able to perform parallelism for the transactions. And so, to minimize costs and to maximize the parallelism of these types of transactions, we turned to NoSQL and other non-relational approaches. These efforts combined open-source software, large amounts of small servers and loose consistency constraints on the distributed transactions (eventual consistency). The basic idea was to minimize coordination by identifying types of transactions where it didnt matter if some users got old data rather than the latest data, or if some users got an answer while others didnt. Technical Aspects NoSQL is a non-relational database management system which is different from the traditional relational database management systems in significant ways. NoSQL systems are designed for distributed data stores which require large scale data storage, are schema-less and scale horizontally. Relational databases rely upon very structured rules to govern transactions. These rules are encoded in the ACID model which requires that the database must always preserve atomicity, consistency, isolation and durability in each database transaction. The NoSQL databases follow the BASE model which provides three loose guidelines: basic availability, soft state and eventual consistency. Two primary reasons to consider NoSQL are: handle data access with sizes and performance that demand a cluster; and to improve the productivity of application development by using a more convenient data interaction style [6]. The common characteristics of NoSQL are: Not using the relational model Running well on clusters Open-source Built for 21st century web estates Schema less Each NoSQL solution uses a different data model which can be put in four widely used categories in the NoSQL Ecosystem: key-value, document, column-family and graph. Of these the first three share a common characteristic of their data models called aggregate orientation. Next we briefly describe each of these data models. 3.1 Document Oriented The main concept of a document oriented database is the notion of a document [3]. The database stores and retrieves documents which encapsulate and encode data in some standard formats or encodings like XML, JSON, BSON, and so on. These documents are self-describing, hierarchical tree data structures and can offer different ways of organizing and grouping documents: Collections Tags Non-visible Metadata Directory Hierarchies Documents are addressed with a unique key which represents the document. Also, beyond a simple key-document lookup, the database offers an API or query language that allows retrieval of documents based on their content. img1.jpg Fig 1: Comparison of terminology between Oracle and MongoDB 3.1.1 Merits Intuitive data structure. Simple natural modeling of requests with flexible query functions [2]. Can act as a central data store for event storage, especially when the data captured by the events keeps changing. With no predefined schemas, they work well in content management systems or blogging platforms. Can store data for real-time analytics; since parts of the document can be updated, it is easy to store page views and new metrics can be added without schema changes. Provides flexible schema and ability to evolve data models without expensive database refactoring or data migration to E-commerce applications [6]. Demerits Higher hardware demands because of more dynamic DB queries in part without data preparation. Redundant storage of data (denormalization) in favor of higher performance [2]. Not suitable for atomic cross-document operations. Since the data is saved as an aggregate, if the design of an aggregate is constantly changing, aggregates have to be saved at the lowest level of granularity. In this case, document databases may not work [6]. .3.1.3 Case Study MongoDB MongoDB is an open-source document-oriented database system developed by 10gen. It stores structured data as JSON-like documents with dynamic schemas (MongoDB calls the format BSON), making the integration of data in certain types of applications easier and faster. The language support includes Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Ruby and it also supports sharding via configurable data fields. Each MongoDB instance has multiple databases, and each database can have multiple collections [2,6]. When a document is stored, we have to choose which database and collection this document belongs in. Consistency in MongoDB database is configured by using the replica sets and choosing to wait for the writes to be replicated to a given number of slaves. Transactions at the single-document level are atomic transactions a write either succeeds or fails. Transactions involving more than one operation are not possible, although there are few exceptions. MongoDB implements replication, providing high availability using replica sets. In a replica set, there are two or more nodes participating in an asynchronous master-slave replication. MongoDB has a query language which is expressed via JSON and has variety of constructs that can be combined to create a MongoDB query. With MongoDB, we can query the data inside the document without having to retrieve the whole document by its key and then introspect the document. Scaling in MongoDB is achieved through sharding. In sharding, the data is split by certain field, and then moved to different Mongo nodes. The data is dynamically moved between nodes to ensure that shards are always balanced. We can add more nodes to the cluster and increase the number of writable nodes, enabling horizontal scaling for writes [6, 9]. 3.2 Key-value A key-value store is a simple hash table, primarily used when all access to the database is via primary key. They allow schema-less storage of data to an application. The data could be stored in a data type of a programming language or an object. The following types exist: Hierarchical key-value store Eventually-consistent key-value store, hosted services, key-value chain in RAM, ordered key-value stores, multi value databases, tuple store and so on. Key-value stores are the simplest NoSQL data stores to use form an API perspective. The client can get or put the value for a key, or delete a key from the data store. The value is a blob that is just stored without knowing what is inside; it is the responsibility of the application to understand what is stored [3, 6]. 3.2.1 Merits Performance high and predictable. Simple data model. Clear separation of saving from application logic (because of lacking query language). Suitable for storing session information. User profiles, product profiles, preferences can be easily stored. Best suited for shopping cart data and other E-commerce applications. Can be scaled easily since they always use primary-key access. 3.2.2 Demerits Limited range of functions High development effort for more complex applications Not the best solution when relationships between different sets of data are required. Not suited for multi operation transactions. There is no way to inspect the value on the database side. Since operations are limited to one key at a time, there is no way to operate upon multiple keys at the same time. 3.2.3 Case Study Azure Table Storage For structured forms of storage, Windows Azure provides structured key-value pairs stored in entities known as Tables. The table storage uses a NoSQL model based on key-value pairs for querying structured data that is not in a typical database. A table is a bag of typed properties that represents an entity in the application domain. Data stored in Azure tables is partitioned horizontally and distributed across storage nodes for optimized access. Every table has a property called the Partition Key, which defines how data in the table is partitioned across storage nodes rows that have the same partition key are stored in a partition. In addition, tables can also define Row Keys which are unique within a partition and optimize access to a row within a partition. When present, the pair {partition key, row key} uniquely identifies a row in a table. The access to the Table service is through REST APIs [6]. 3.3 Column Store Column-family databases store data in column-families as rows that have many columns associated with a row key. These stores allow storing data with key mapped to values, and values grouped into multiple column families, each column family being a map of data. Column-families are groups of related data that is often accessed together. The column-family model is as a two-level aggregate structure. As with key-value stores, the first key is often described as a row identifier, picking up the aggregate of interest. The difference with column-family structures is that this row aggregate is itself formed of a map of more detailed values. These second-level values are referred to as columns. It allows accessing the row as a whole as well as operations also allow picking out a particular column [6]. 3.3.1 Merits Designed for performance. Native support for persistent views towards key-value store. Sharding: Distribution of data to various servers through hashing. More efficient than row-oriented systems during aggregation of a few columns from many rows. Column-family databases with their ability to store any data structures are great for storing event information. Allows storing blog entries with tags, categories, links, and trackbacks in different columns. Can be used to count and categorize visitors of a page in a web application to calculate analytics. Provides a functionality of expiring columns: columns which, after a given time, are deleted automatically. This can be useful in providing demo access to users or showing ad banners on a website for a specific time. 3.3.2 Demerits Limited query options for data High maintenance effort during changing of existing data because of updating all lists. Less efficient than all row-oriented systems during access to many columns of a row. Not suitable for systems that require ACID transactions for reads and writes. Not good for early prototypes or initial tech spikes as the schema change required is very expensive. 3.3.3 Case Study Cassandra A column is the basic unit of storage in Cassandra. A Cassandra column consists of a name-value pair where the name behaves as the key. Each of these key-value pairs is a single column and is stored with a timestamp value which is used to expire data, resolve write conflicts, deal with stale data, and other things. A row is a collection of columns attached or linked to a key; a collection of similar rows makes a column family. Each column family can be compared to a container of rows in an RDBMS table where the key identifies the row and the row consists on multiple columns. The difference is that various rows do not need to have the same columns, and columns can be added to any row at any time without having to add it to other rows. By design Cassandra is highly available, since there is no master in the cluster and every node is a peer in the cluster. A write operation in Cassandra is considered successful once its written to the commit log and an in-memory structure known as memtable. While a node is down, the data that was supposed to be stored by that node is handed off to other nodes. As the node comes back online, the changes made to the data are handed back to the node. This technique, known as hinted handoff, for faster restore of failed nodes. In Cassandra, a write is atomic at the row level, which means inserting or updating columns for a given row key will be treated as a single write and will either succeed or fail. Cassandra has a query language that supports SQL-like commands, known as Cassandra Query Language (CQL) [2, 6]. We can use the CQL commands to create a column family. Scaling in Cassandra is done by adding more nodes. As no single node is a master, when we add nodes to the cluster we are improving the capacity of the cluster to support more writes and reads. This allows for maximum uptime as the cluster keeps serving requests from the clients while new nodes are being added to the cluster. 3.4 Graph Graph databases allow storing entities and relationships between these entities. Entities are also known as nodes, which have properties. Relations are known as edges that can have properties. Edges have directional significance; nodes are organized by relationships which allow finding interesting patterns between the nodes. The organization of the graph lets the data to be stored once and then interpreted in different ways based on relationships. Relationships are first-class citizens in graph databases; most of the value of graph databases is derived from the relationships. Relationships dont only have a type, a start node, and an end node, but can have properties of their own. Using these properties on the relationships, we can add intelligence to the relationship for example, since when did they become friends, what is the distance between the nodes, or what aspects are shared between the nodes. These properties on the relationships can be used to query the graph [2, 6]. 3.4.1 Merits Very compact modeling of networked data. High performance efficiency. Can be deployed and used very effectively in social networking. Excellent choice for routing, dispatch and location-based services. As nodes and relationships are created in the system, they can be used to make recommendation engines. They can be used to search for patterns in relationships to detect fraud in transactions. 3.4.2 Demerits Not appropriate when an update is required on all or a subset of entities. Some databases may be unable to handle lots of data, especially in global graph operations (those involving the whole graph). Sharding is difficult as graph databases are not aggregate-oriented. 3.4.3 Case Study Neo4j Neo4j is an open-source graph database, implemented in Java. It is described as an embedded, disk-based, fully transactional Java persistence engine that stores data structured in graphs rather than in table. Neo4j is ACID compliant and easily embedded in individual applications. In Neo4J, a graph is created by making two nodes and then establishing a relationship. Graph databases ensure consistency through transactions. They do not allow dangling relationships: The start node and end node always have to exist, and nodes can only be deleted if they dont have any relationships attached to them. Neo4J achieves high availability by providing for replicated slaves. Neo4j is supported by query languages such as Gremlin (Groovy based traversing language) and Cypher (declarative graph query language) [6]. There are three ways to scale graph databases: Adding enough RAM to the server so that the working set of nodes and relationships is held entirely in memory. Improve the read scaling of the database by adding more slaves with read-only access to the data, with all the writes going to the master. Sharding the data from the application side using domain-specific knowledge. Conclusions NoSQL databases are still evolving and more number of enterprises is switching to move from the traditional relational database technology to non-relational databases. But given their limitations, they will never completely replace the relational databases. The future of NoSQL is in the usage of various database tools in application-oriented way and their broader adoption in specialized projects involving large unstructured distributed data with high requirements on scaling. On the other hand, an adoption of NoSQL data stores will hardly compete with relational databases that represent reliability and matured technology. NoSQL databases leave a lot work on the application designer. The application design is an important part of the non-relational databases which enable the database designers to provide certain functionalities to the users. Hence a good understanding of the architecture for NoSQL systems is required. The need of the hour is to take advantage of the new trends emerging in the world of databases the non-relational databases. An effective solution would be to combine the power of different database technologies to meet the requirements and maximize the performance.

Comparing The Matrix and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? :: Compare Contrast Matrix Androids Essays

Comparing The Matrix and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? For the common moviegoer and book aficionado, the movie, The Matrix and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? are bizarre and peculiar. These works are not the usual themes of normal movies and books. These works have a lot of elements in common. Both works have matrices. The movie and the book stress the idea of reality. In both works the idea of what s real and what s not is the central theme. In the movie, The Matrix there are many similarities with the book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? One similarity is that of the matrices in both works. The movie has a matrix of dreams. According to the movie, humans are dreaming. Dreaming means that the reality humans think of, is not reality. The reality humans think of, is a dream. Confusing, isn t? An easier way of understanding this matrix is to think of human dreams. When humans experience dreams, it is not perceived as a dream until the dream ends. The movie exemplifies humans in the dream state of mind, similar to the dreaming stage. Neo is exposed to his real matrix. The matrix outside of his perceptual reality. He is able to perform with an incredible flexibility and high speed thinking. He is no longer dreaming, or as Neo called it, living. Neo has waken up. The book shares this matrix as well. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? the androids are dreaming. The Tyrell Corporation has programmed these androids to think, feel, and act as instructed. The androids are in a dream matrix just as humans are in The Matrix. The androids don t know what s real. What s real for them is not real. For example, Rachel can play the piano. She doesn t know she can play the piano, until she actually starts playing it. It s a computer generated simulation. She didn t really learn how to play the piano. One difference in both works is the matrix of existence. In the book, Deckard doubts his existence. He starts to wonder what a human being is.

Canterbury Tales The Woman of Bath Essay -- essays papers

Canterbury Tales The Woman of Bath The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, is a collection of stories in a frame story, between 1387 and 1400. It is the story of a group of thirty people who travel as pilgrims to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Thomas Beckett. The pilgrims, who come from all classes of society, tell stories to each other to kill time while they travel to Canterbury. In the Prologue, it states Chaucer intended that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back. He died before he had a chance to finish his project; however, he did manage to complete twenty-four of the tales including the one supposedly told by the Woman of Bath. The rather promiscuous Woman of Bath told an interesting story which was in keeping with her unique personality. The lewd Woman of Bath was a very intricate cloth-maker who led a very interesting life. She was a member of the urban society and was very successful in her endeavors. She was considered attractive, she had big hips, long hair, gapped teeth, and she was somewhat deaf. She wore tight clothes, a red scarf on her head, red fishnet stockings, and soft new shoes. All of these things, along with the fact that she was very well traveled indicated that she was rather wealthy. The Woman of Bath had five husbands and many more love affairs. Chaucer states that she knows how to remedy love’s problems, an art at which she knew the oldest dances. The Woman of Bath was quit...

My fellow thanes for Macbeth’s Coronation banquet Essay

My lady and I were asked to join my fellow thanes for Macbeth’s Coronation banquet. As we entered the cavernous hall, which had been decorated with splendid colours and banners, I noticed few people were talking. The sullen silence made the hall seem even bigger and perhaps even darker, and then, I gasped in astonishment as I noticed the feast (I do not know how I could have missed it) it was so vast it took up twenty full tables. Every imaginable food was there including much game. I had only just taken it all in when the sound of trumpets announced to the assembly the king was coming. He and his wife entered. Macbeth was dressed in fine clothes, red and gold silks and rare animal furs. Upon each finger a gold ring glittered , and of course the golden crown of the king. Lady Macbeth was also dressed in fine silks complimenting her pale cold looks perfectly, and also upon her hand rings glistened and gleamed like sun glinting off a newly forged sword. Around her neck many fine chains of gold and silver, the best that could be found. But soon things became not as they should, when my lord started seeing apparitions and things that were clearly not there. They may not have been there but the look of horror on Lord Macbeth’s face was enough to persuade me that he saw something others could not, and would not like to. But our Lady Macbeth reassured us and tried to explain it was a problem from childhood. But also throughout the most royal banquet our lord Macbeth disappeared and reappeared many times, he was rumored to have been seen with to shifty looking rogues. My lord and lady Macbeth were also seen to be quarreling throughout the evening, the air between them was thick with unsaid threats and promises, they were both on edge throughout the evening even though his lordship tried hard to hide it. Unfortunately we were asked to leave early as Macbeth had gone into another trance, seeing things that were not there, he talked about them too he spoke of grievances and of blood and injury but as soon as started they had finished and we were bid leave.

Any aspect of lactation in the muskrat

The secretion of milk from mammary glands in the process of feeding their young is characteristic of all mammals. The muskrat, an amphibious rodent that is mostly aquatic is no different (Colby 1967).Its name is derived from scent glands otherwise known as musk within their bodies. This scent is vital in their communication while mating or defending their territory. Muskrats can be found in water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds or marshes with at least not less than 4 feet and not exceeding 6 feet. Marshes are however the most suitable habitat for muskrats.Descriptive FactsOn average a muskrat has a length of about 2 feet and weighing close to 3 pounds. Its eyes are small and the ears hidden in the fur (Cyril 1984). Its lips are fleshy and furred such that it can gnaw with its incisors while underwater without water sipping in its mouth. Its short legs and small forefeet ensure that it grabs objects.The grip is further enhanced by a large hind feet with strongly clawed toes (Banf ield, 1974). The muskrat can be easily tracked by its tail which accompanies the track made by the foot. Its color can be black, grey, white or albino though the commonest is the mahogany color with tawny or grey under parts. The Cree Indians referred to this creature as â€Å"Musquash† due to a pungent smell noticeable in the mating season (Colby, 1967).Way of lifeMuskrats are mainly nocturnal and since most of their time is spent in water these little creatures are excellent swimmers. On average a muskrat can spend up to fifteen minutes under water. They use their tail and hind feet as propellers and rudder respectively. Due to the waterproof fur, muskrats can remain submerged for about 3 minutes. The underbelly fur adjusts easily to the seasons. In the warm seasons it is pale and becomes darker as the cold season approaches.Just like most mammals muskrats live in family units and are aggressive in defending their home territory. Normally, the home environment is approximat ely 65 yards. The area population densities vary from 3 to 4 animals per acre to about 35 per acre.The muskrats face the threats of a number of predators both inside the water and on land. The most serious and notable predator is the mink. During the spring these predators are notorious since the muskrats are on the move whereas the young are confined in the dens. Other predators include the snapping turtle, foxes, wolves, black bear and some birds that kill the muskrats when out in the open marshes.Muskrats live in well plastered mud houses constructed on bulrushes. The houses are either built on a stump or on a log. The location is normally close to deep water, about 4 feet above water level or at the edge of a vegetation cover.The area should not be one that faces drastic water level changes though the year. This is to ensure that the young are offered with enough protection for the muskrats since they face threats from the predators. However, in most cases the homes are usually destroyed in spring as a result of flooding.The Muskrat’s DietThe muskrat has two kinds of diet that are favored either during summer or winter. To a greater extend muskrats are herbivores but in case of scarcity they do predate on other animals. In the summer season there is plenty of food, mostly emergent vegetation such as water lily, bulrush and arrowhead (Barker, 1987).This diet is well balanced with animal matter which include; small turtles, frogs, catfish and salamanders. The winter food is usually limited since much food is not stored in summer. The submerged vegetation that wholly meets the diet of the muskrats comprises water weed, water lily tuber, and pondweeds.